ultimatepopculturefandomcom-20200216-history
Mortal Kombat 11
}} | publisher = Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment | director = Ed Boon | producer = Graeme Bayless | designer = John Edwards | programmer = Gavin Freyberg | artist = Steve Beran | writer = | composer = Wilbert Roget, II }} | series = Mortal Kombat | engine = Unreal Engine 3 | platforms = | release = | genre = Fighting | modes = Single-player, multiplayer }} Mortal Kombat 11 is a fighting video game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Running on the Unreal Engine 3, it is the eleventh main installment in the Mortal Kombat series and a sequel to 2015's Mortal Kombat X. Announced at The Game Awards 2018, the game was released in North America and Europe on April 23, 2019 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In late January 2019 it was reported that the Switch version was delayed in Europe, and is now scheduled for a May 10, 2019 release. The game received positive reviews from critics, who praised the gameplay, story, and improved netcode, although there was some criticism for the microtransactions and reliance on grinding. Gameplay Like the previous two games in the series, Mortal Kombat 11 is a 2.5D fighting game. Alongside the returning Fatalities and Brutalities, new gameplay features are introduced, such as Fatal Blows and Krushing Blows. Fatal Blows are special moves similar to the X-ray moves in Mortal Kombat X. Like X-ray moves, Fatal Blows deal a large amount of damage, but unlike them, they only become available when a player's health drops below 30%, and can only be performed once per match. Krushing Blows are a special cinematic variation of a given special move, triggered when certain requirements are met, most like Brutalities in the previous game. Also new to the series is a Flawless Block mechanic, which allows for a comeback window after blocking an attack with precise timing. Another returning finisher is Mercy, last seen in Mortal Kombat 3, where the winning player can opt to revive their opponent, giving them a small amount of life. Mortal Kombat 11 also introduces a Custom Variation feature which offers character customization features system similar to the Gear system in Netherrealm Studios' previous DC Comics fighting game, Injustice 2, improving over the Variation system featured in Mortal Kombat X. Each character has an initial set of outfits, weapons and moves, which can be further customized by the player. However, unlike Injustice 2, in Mortal Kombat 11 the characters' appearance does not determine their abilities, allowing the players to create custom move lists independently of their character's appearance. Plot Following Shinnok's defeat at the hands of Cassie Cage in Mortal Kombat X, a now-corrupted Raiden plans to protect Earthrealm by destroying all its enemies any way he can. Raiden incapacitates Shinnok by decapitation, which triggers Kronika, Shinnok's mother and keeper of time, to rewrite history in order to stop Raiden's interference. A Special Forces strike team led by Sonya Blade, Cassie, and Jacqui Briggs assaults the main cathedral in the Netherrealm, with Raiden providing a diversion to aid them. The team succeeds in destroying the base at the cost of Sonya's life. Kronika creates an alliance with Liu Kang and Kitana before causing temporal anomalies. Kotal Kahn, the current emperor of Outworld, attempts to execute the Kollector, but is interrupted by Kronika. Shao Kahn, Skarlet, Baraka, and younger versions of Kano, Erron Black, Jade, Raiden, Kitana, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya, Jax, Scorpion, and Kung Lao appear from an alternate timeline, while also causing Dark Raiden to be erased from existence due to the laws of time affecting him differently due to his immortal status, leaving Shinnok's amulet behind. The battle in Kotal's arena ends when D'Vorah transports Baraka, Skarlet, Black, Shao Kahn, and Kano to her hive, recruiting them into Kronika's fold. Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Raiden show up at the base after forging an alliance with Kotal Kahn. They learn that there is an energy signal under the Wu Shi Academy. Liu Kang and Kung Lao's investigation leads to a battle with Kronika's subordinate Geras and their Revenant counterparts, and ends with Geras getting away with powerful energy capsules containing Earthrealm's life force. The special forces learn that Sektor is making a cyber army for Kronika. Sub-Zero and Hanzo Hasashi are sent there. With the aid of Cyrax, they shut down the cyber Lin Kuei, forcing Geras and both versions of Kano to revive Sektor and rebuild the cybernetic army. Raiden tries to consult with the Elder Gods. They refuse to help, but Cetrion, Kronika's daughter and an Elder Goddess, gives him ways to defeat her. Kronika recruits the present-day Jax to her side by tricking him into believing it was for the best to protect his daughter. Kotal Kahn and Jade go to a Tarkatan camp in order to turn them away from Shao Kahn, but Kotal's brutality and hatred towards the Tarkatans cause Jade to battle him, resulting in his defeat, before Shao Khan appears and captures them all. The Special Forces base is destroyed by the Black Dragon and the cyber Lin Kuei, with the younger versions of Johnny Cage and Sonya captured in the process and Sektor being killed. Cassie leads a strike team to save her parents, where Sonya kills the younger version of Kano to erase his present-self from existence. Meanwhile, Kitana, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao battle Baraka in order to secure an alliance with him and Sheeva. With their aid, Kitana successfully kills Shao Kahn, uniting the Outworld factions and inheriting the throne from Kotal. Raiden sends Jax and Jacqui to get the crown of souls from Shang Tsung's Island, but the pair are thwarted by Cetrion and present-day Jax. Hasashi is tasked with getting Kharon, the person who sends the unfortunate souls to the Netherrealm, to join their side so they can defeat Kronika. Hasashi fights his younger self, and persuades him to join his side. Right after the younger version agrees, D'Vorah poisons Hanzo. As he is dying, he tells Scorpion to get Kharon. Scorpion returns to the Fire Garden and is attacked by Raiden, due to Raiden's mistrust of the former after Scorpion betrayed Raiden after killing the original Sub-Zero years earlier. Raiden resorts to using Shinnok's amulet, resulting in Shinnok's influence beginning to corrupt Raiden once again, and Raiden engages in battle against Liu Kang. After Liu Kang repeats the exact same words from the battle where Raiden accidentally killed Liu Kang in the past, Raiden comes to his senses after realizing that his battles with Liu Kang in different timelines were a part of Kronika's machinations. Anticipating Raiden's realization, Kronika explains that her pitting Raiden against Liu Kang was due to their combined powers threatning her plans, and subsequently kidnaps Liu Kang. With Kharon recruited, Raiden, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Cassie, Jacqui, Kitana, Sheeva, Jade, and Baraka lead a joint Earthrealm/Outworld task force to assault Kronika's keep. Geras is dropped in the bottomless sea of blood, Frost is defeated and shut down, disabling the Cyber Lin-Kuei, and the older Jax defects to the heroes' side. Kronika sends Revenant Liu Kang to attack Raiden after absorbing the power from his past-self. After defeating the Revenant Liu Kang, Raiden merges with him, and becomes Fire God Liu Kang, and Liu Kang adquires the memories and knowledge of Kronika's plan through his Revenant-self. The heroes breach the Keep, only for Kronika to restore history to its beginning, except for Fire God Liu Kang due to his god-like status, and subsequently defeats Cetrion before engaging in battle against Kronika. Depending on the outcome of the battle, the story ends in three different ways: *If Liu Kang successfully defeats Kronika in two straight rounds without losing once, Liu Kang manages to reunite with Kitana, and both create a new timeline and spend the rest of eternity together. *If Liu Kang successfully defeats Kronika, but while also losing one round to her, Liu Kang is unable to bring Kitana back due to Kronika reverting history way too much, and instead, a now-mortal Raiden offers to become Liu Kang's advisor for as long as his lifetime lasts and the two begin to create a new timeline. *If Liu Kang is defeated by Kronika, Kronika decapitates Liu Kang and announces the beginning of the New Era, although this proves to be a non-canon ending as the game has the player restart the battle. Characters The game's roster consists of 25 playable characters. The characters in bold are new to the series. Along with series veterans including Baraka, Raiden, Scorpion, Sonya Blade and Sub-Zero, and others such as Skarlet, who returns from the 2011 reboot, four new fighters were introduced, three of whom are playable. Firstly, Kronika serves as the series's first-ever female boss character, who has powers over the flow of time, and had been supervising the events of the timelines since the very beginning. She is not among the game's playable characters. Playable fighters include Geras, a construct of Kronika, who, like her, has powers that allow him to control the flow of time, and produce sand-based attacks; Cetrion, an Elder Goddess with control over elemental forces, who is Shinnok's sister and Kronika's daughter; and Kollector, a six-armed tribute collector who serves the Outworld empire. Development Mortal Kombat 11 was developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the two parties also involved with the game's predecessor, Mortal Kombat X. The game was announced by series co-creator Ed Boon in December 2018, at The Game Awards 2018, with a trailer showcasing Dark Raiden and Scorpion fighting against each other. At the end of the announcement trailer it was announced that pre-order buyers would have Shao Kahn available as a playable character. The trailer featured "Immortal", an original song by artist 21 Savage, which was met with negative reception from fans of the series. While some critics thought that 21 Savage's distinct musical style well underlined the trailer's violence, most felt that the song's tone did not fit the trailer's theme, spawning a series of videos replacing it. After the trailer was revealed, voice actor Patrick Seitz announced that in seeing it he realized he had not been cast to return to voice Scorpion in Mortal Kombat 11, a role that he had played since Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe from 2008. Later the following month, Vic Chao, who had voiced Kenshi, Triborg and Goro in Mortal Kombat X revealed that a majority of the cast from the previous Mortal Kombat installments would not return in Mortal Kombat 11, himself included. Earlier, in December, Karen Strassman, who voiced both Kitana and Mileena in the previous two installments, had also revealed that she would not reprise her role as Kitana and Mileena, citing politics in gaming that affect casting. On March 22, 2019, about a month before the game's release, it was announced at C2E2 that actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa would reprise his role as Shang Tsung from the 1995 film and the second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy, while coinciding the announcement of the character as downloadable content. A public stress test of the game's online mode took place between March 15 and 17. Also, a closed beta was available between March 27 and April 1, 2019, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One pre-order buyers. Related media Toys At Toy Fair 2019, it was announced that McFarlane Toys would be producing a line of action figures to promote the game. Mobile game In February 2019, the mobile game that had originally been launched as Mortal Kombat X for iOS and Android, was renamed to Mortal Kombat Mobile as it received its 2.0 update, incorporating Mortal Kombat 11 content in the process. Among these changes, the graphics engine was transitioned from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4. Release The game was released on April 23, 2019, across Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Downloadable content At C2E2 on March 22, 2019, Shang Tsung was announced as the first downloadable character, who is also returning from the 2011 reboot, featuring the voice and likeness of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Promotion A community reveal event was held on January 17, 2019, in Los Angeles and London. The reveal event featured, among many others, a filmed interview with Ronda Rousey, the voice actor for Sonya Blade. Reception | MC = 83/100 (PS4) 87/100 (XONE) 83/100 (PC) 76/100 (NS) | GRadar = | GSpot = 8/10 | IGN = 9/10 | JXV = 18/20 | PCGUS = 85/100 | rev1 = Metro | rev1Score = 8/10 | rev2 = Push Square | rev2Score = | rev3 = PC World | rev3Score = }} Mortal Kombat 11 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. IGN praised the more slow-paced combat compared to the previous game in the series, as well as the expanded tutorial, story mode and improved netcode. However, it condemned the game's drawn-out progression and customization unlock system, which was described as "frustratingly gimmicky and grindy". The game also became the subject of criticism from some fans for one of its story endings where Jax uses his newfound time manipulation powers to go back in time and revert the existence of slavery, as well as the desexualization of the game's female characters. Notes References External links * Category:2019 video games Category:Fighting games used at the Evolution Championship Series tournament Category:Martial arts video games Category:Mortal Kombat games Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games Category:NetherRealm Studios games Category:Ninja video games Category:Nintendo Switch eShop games Category:Nintendo Switch games Category:PlayStation 4 games Category:Time travel video games Category:Unreal Engine games Category:Versus fighting games Category:Video game sequels Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Video games featuring female antagonists Category:Video games with 2.5D graphics Category:Video games with AI versus AI mode Category:Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment games Category:Windows games Category:Xbox One games